Author: LMI Newsdesk

UK retailer Co-op has insured the final tranche of its pension scheme liabilities in a £4bn ($5bn) deal with insurer Rothesay. The deal involves transferring almost 50,000 scheme members, made up of 17,655 pensioners and dependents and 31,896 deferred members and is the fourth deal between the two parties following three buy-in transactions in 2020. The pension scheme’s sponsor is the Co-operative Group and, in a press release, Rothesay said that no additional contribution from the employer was required as the fund was in surplus and illiquid assets in its investment portfolio were used to pay the buy-in premium. The…

UK pharmacy chain Boots has agreed a £4.8bn pension fund buy-in deal with Legal & General which covers all 53,000 retirees and deferred members of the scheme. According to a press release by the insurer, the transaction is the largest single deal by premium size in the UK, the most members taken on by Legal & General in a single deal. Boots’ decision to offload its pension scheme is part of a more than two decade-long pension de-risking process by the retailer. Its 2001 switch of its asset allocation from equities to bonds made it the first pension fund to deploy…

The MMC UK Pension Fund has completed a £2bn ($2.5bn) longevity swap, covering the liabilities of 14,500 pensioners, and deferred members. According to a press release announcing the move, the longevity swap is the second largest deal of its kind in the UK covering more deferred than active scheme members. The swap is insured via a Guernsey-based incorporated cell company Fission Gamma IC Limited, managed by March Captive Solutions Guernsey,. The swap was simultaneously reinsured by Munich Re. This is the second longevity swap deal which has been struck by the UK arm of the US metals distributor. In 2017…

The latest in a string of public consultations announced by the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) was published on November 16, this time taking aim at the funded reinsurance market.“The PRA considers that by setting out its expectations for life insurers’ use of funded reinsurance, the proposals will advance its primary objectives for safety and soundness and policyholder protection while allowing the life insurance sector to continue to play an important role in productive investment in the UK economy,” says the consultation.“The PRA’s proposals reflect its assessment that there are significant potential risks to the PRA’s primary objectives…

Longevity and mortality risk transfer marketplace Longitude Exchange has appointed Guy Coughlan to its newly formed Advisory Board. Coughlan was involved in building the LifeMetrics Index at JP Morgan and has decades of experience and understanding of longevity risk and its implications for pension schemes and insurance companies, with expertise in understanding how transacting in a format suitable for capital market investors can add value for longevity and mortality risk hedgers. “Guy Coughlan is one of the founding fathers in the longevity risk management universe,” said Avery Michaelson, CEO of Longitude Exchange. “His work at JP Morgan creating the LifeMetrics…

Legal & General has signed a £500m ($610m) buy-in deal with the Deutsche Bank (UK) Pension Scheme, in a move which covers the benefits of around 2,000 retirees and deferred members. The pension fund is sponsored by a UK subsidiary of Deutsche Bank and this is the second buy-in deal it has agreed this year. In April it signed a £400 million contract with Aviva, which covered nearly 900 scheme members. Deutsche Bank also announced a £570m buy-in deal with Legal & General in February 2021, bringing its total value of buy-ins to £1.5bn over the last two and half…

Life settlements industry group, the Life Insurance Settlements Association, has announced its 2024 leadership. John Dallas, President of Berkshire Settlements, will be the group’s new Chair next year, succeeding Sherry Duarte, Managing Director of Fifth Season Financial. Duarte will transition to the role of Immediate Past Chair and remain a member of LISA’s Executive Committee. No new board members were added this year, but Neal Jacobs, Managing Director of Finance at Coventry, will serve an additional three-year term. “I look forward to working with this Board of Directors to further advance LISA’s mission,” said Bryan Nicholson, LISA’s Executive Director. “The…

The Rotork pension fund has agreed a £80m ($99m) buy-in deal with UK insurer Aviva, following a £20m cash contribution from its sponsor Rotork PLC.Bath-based industrial manufacturer Rotork has offloaded the liabilities of 406 pensioners and dependents from the Rotork Pension & Life Assurance Scheme.Actuarial consultants LCP was the trustee’s de-risking adviser, and lead adviser for the transaction, with additional advice given to the trustees by Barnett Waddingham and Gowling WLG.The transaction was made possible following the £20m cash contribution in June this year which saw the scheme go from a deficit of £8m in December 2022 to a surplus…

Clara Pensions has signed the UK’s first superfund pension deal after reaching an agreement with the trustees of the Sears Retail Pension Scheme.Under the agreement 9,600 members of Sears’ pension fund will be transferred to Clara Pensions after clearance was agreed by the UK’s Pensions Regulator (TPR). The transfer process is expected to start this month. The deal includes an additional £30m of ring-fenced funding to support the pension scheme in the absence of an ongoing employer covenant. The superfund concept was introduced in 2018 and Clara Pensions was the first entity to receive approval from TPR.Superfunds are analogous to insurance buyouts…

British trade body the Equity Release Council (ERC) published its most recent quarterly update this week, showing a market that has returned to growth for the first time in 12 months. The ERC said that total lending increased by 8% in the third quarter of 2023, with £716m of deals being closed, up from £663m in Q2. The number of new plans agreed in Q3 was 7,379, up 10% on Q2’s 6,682. Of these, there was a broad split when it comes to product choice: 53% opted for drawdown lifetime mortgages, taking an initial withdrawal up-front with more held in…